State laws permitting betting on sports are becoming more and more the norm in the United States, as roughly 60% of the country’s 50 states now allow it in some form.
On Tuesday night, a Division I college basketball coach in a state that just made it legal on Jan. 1, indirectly spoke out on the effect it is already having on his players.
Anthony Grant, head coach of the Dayton Flyers men’s basketball team in Ohio, didn’t specifically use the words betting or gambling in his postgame press conference after his team beat the Davidson Wildcats 68-61, but said, “There’s some laws that have recently been enacted, that to me, it could really change the landscape of what college sports is all about, and when we have people that make it about themselves and attack kids because of their own agenda, it sickens me.”
He went on to say, “They have families. They don’t deserve that. Mental health is real.”
David Jablonski of the Dayton Daily News tweeted that Grant’s comments came in response to hate messages his players received after they lost to the VCU Rams by a point last week.
According to a story by Jablonski Tuesday night, Flyers athletic director Neil Sullivan said athletes at his university have been on the receiving end of more hate messages online since Jan. 1 than occurred before.
“These are young kids,” Sullivan said, “and I’m not going to add too much to what (Grant) said, but I’m the paid adult. If someone’s getting mad, they can get mad at me. They know where to find me. They’ve found me many times.”
In response to the comments from Grant and Sullivan, sports betting reporter Bennett Conlin reported Wednesday morning that the Ohio Casino Control Commission “says it will look into banning Ohio gamblers who spread hateful messages to college athletes.”
A story by Sam McQuillan from betting website Action Network on Jan. 1 projected that by the end of 2024, more than 80% of the states in the country could have sports betting legalized.
McQuillan projects that after 2024, just seven states are unlikely to have legalized sports gambling — Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Utah, Oklahoma, Alabama and South Carolina.